


Slurpees and Gummy Bears

by ruinedwords



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bisexual Anakin Skywalker, Bisexual Obi-Wan Kenobi, F/M, Fluff, Lesbian Ahsoka Tano, Nonbinary Ahsoka Tano, Trans Anakin Skywalker, bad boy anakin kind of, nerd padmé, very very very small and not graphic violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:15:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24277981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruinedwords/pseuds/ruinedwords
Summary: Padmé Amidala Naberrie loves reading. Ever since she was young she adored it. She could pick up a book and finish it within the day. She loved immersing herself in the words, the way the words float off the page and could create their own world right before her eyes. She could be in her small room with pink walls and a twin bed one moment and in another Galaxy the next. She could read anything you gave her, no matter how hard or how big the book was, she could read it. And if she couldn’t? She would try a thousand times over until she could. There was never something she could not read.And she can read Anakin Skywalker like a scholastic book she got during a book fair in Elementary school.( or, padmé learns anakin skywalker is more than meets the eye )
Relationships: Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 17
Kudos: 77





	Slurpees and Gummy Bears

**Author's Note:**

> ahsoka is a he/they lesbian btw, not a boy. not proofread bc i am lazy
> 
> outfit inspiration for anakin and padme come from hayden's role in life as a house and natalie's role in where the heart is! very early 2000s vibes but its set in 2020 :)

Padmé Amidala Naberrie loves reading. Ever since she was young she adored it. She could pick up a book and finish it within the day. She loved immersing herself in the words, the way the words float off the page, and could create their own world right before her eyes. She could be in her small room with pink walls and a twin bed one moment and in another Galaxy the next. She could read anything you gave her, no matter how hard or how big the book was, she could read it. And if she couldn’t? She would try a thousand times over until she could. There was never something she could not read.

And she can read Anakin Skywalker like a scholastic book she got during a book fair in Elementary school. 

Anakin Skywalker is popular. Anakin Skywalker is a stoner. Anakin Skywalker is a class clown. Anakin Skywalker is a “bad boy”. Anakin Skywalker is rude. Anakin Skywalker is brash. Anakin Skywalker is dumb.

Anakin Skywalker lives across the street from her in the decently sized city of Varykino. Varykino has a decent population of eighty-four thousand people and is near many lakes. It’s also where Padmé’s lived her whole life. Anakin Skywalker? Not so much. He moved to the opposing house of her own roughly three years ago. When they were both fourteen. But seasons come and go and they’re no longer fourteen. No, Padmé Naberrie is an exceptional young lady at the age of seventeen. 

And she knows all she needs to know about Anakin Skywalker. 

Anakin Skywalker is weird. He came to Varykino in a beat-up van that groaned into the driveway of the house that stood directly across Padmé’s own in a black t-shirt and acid wash jeans. He only had one piercing in his left ear at the time and looked upset. Padmé remembered the day as clearly as she sees her own hand, now. She looked out her window to see Anakin with a scowl that looked permanently stitched onto his face carrying a big brown box labeled ANAKIN’S STUFF. DO NOT TOUCH. In big bold black letters. Padmé remembered immediately feeling intimidated. Though again, Padmé is intimidated by anyone that isn’t her immediate family or her best friend in the entire world, Sabé. 

Anakin Skywalker didn’t immediately fit in at school, per se. He was brash and outspoken and loud. But he learned, Padmé thinks. Now he’s outspoken and loud but now people laugh. Anakin is the type to interrupt class with a crude joke and get sent to detention. Anakin wears dark clothes and has dark blue hair. Anakin wears fishnet shirts over a basketball jersey and has a million piercings. Anakin has huge, chunky doc martens that you can hear from down the hall. Anakin smokes during lunch out behind the school.

Anakin Skywalker is the bane of Padmé Naberrie’s existence. Well. Not really. But enough. He interrupts class, barely learns, always annoys his teachers, and bothers her when she’s studying in study hall. Anakin Skywalker is so much yet so little. Anakin Skywalker is easily summed up in eight statements. 

Anakin Skywalker is popular. Anakin Skywalker is a stoner. Anakin Skywalker is a class clown. Anakin Skywalker is a “bad boy”. Anakin Skywalker is rude. Anakin Skywalker is brash. Anakin Skywalker is dumb.

Anakin Skywalker is being tutored by Padmé Naberrie. 

Recently, it seems that Anakin has been _flunking_ English. And it’s Padmé’s passion. So for the low, low price of absolutely nothing, Padmé has been assigned to tutor Anakin twice a week by their English teacher, Mr. Windu. Padmé was first very against it, she yelled and threw a fit in her room and complained to Mr. Windu for 15 whole minutes during lunch one time. Anakin and she do _not_ get along. He is mean and rude and he gets in fights. He smokes during lunch and he drinks beer on the weekend. Anakin has never cared about his grades and grades are the only thing Padmé cares about. They don’t work.

But Mr. Windu says that’s even more reason for them to work together. He says opposites attract and they can balance each other out. Padmé thought it was ridiculous and did it against her very will. Anakin is not the worst student, at least with her. He sometimes pays attention. But usually not.

He complains about schoolwork to Padmé, though she has absolutely no care in the world to listen. But sometimes she does. Anakin complains about how hard it is and Padmé might scream if they weren’t always in the library during these sessions. But the past week Anakin had been on his best behavior. He seems like he’s actually trying. He furrows his eyebrows at the text and sometimes can get out a coherent thought. Padmé might feel proud if she cared. 

Anakin Skywalker is annoying. Anakin Skywalker is a rule breaker. Anakin Skywalker is a bad student. Anakin Skywalker is trying.

Anakin Skywalker is at her window.

Wait -- what? Anakin Skywalker is at her window? It’s midnight, the wind outside is chilling, the moon is crystal clear and the stars have never shined brighter. Why on earth is Anakin Skywalker on a ladder that is currently leaning against the side of Padmé’s red brick house? And he won’t stop knocking on the window like this is normal and Padmé is supposed to be aware of this. 

Regardless, she gets out of her twin bed and walks over to her window and slides it open, a screen separating the two. 

He smiles at her, his lip piercing staring at her in the face. “Hey, Padmé.” Is what he says. His voice is a little shaky like he’s unsure. But his demeanor is confident. He looks childish. Like he knows what he’s doing is _wrong_ but he doesn’t seem to care. It takes a beat for Padmé to react.

“Anakin?” Is all she can say. He chuckles. “Yeah, that’s my name. How did you know?” Padmé rolls her eyes. “What are you _doing_ here? It’s midnight.” She says exasperatedly. He grins at her. “Yeah, on a Friday night! Hey, listen, you’ve been busting your ass trying to help me with English this past month and I want to repay you somehow! Ahsoka knows someone who’s throwing a wicked party and you should come with us.” 

While that is true, why would Padmé spend time with her arch-nemesis? 

Well, not really. Because Anakin doesn’t know that he’s Padmé’s arch-nemesis. He’s annoying and blunt but Padmé always puts on a smile around Anakin. She’s good at faking these sorts of things. Maybe she should stop, though. If this is making Anakin believe she likes him enough for him to show up at her window at midnight. 

“Anakin… I don’t know…” Anakin rolls his eyes. “I don’t care. You’re coming with me. Now, how do you get through this screen?” Padmé laughs. “You don’t. Parties aren’t really my thing…” Anakin shakes his head. “I’m not leaving until you come with me.” Padmé’s face reads confliction. She’s not convinced. Anakin’s face falters a bit, like he can tell. “Okay, look, if you really hate it _that_ much, we can leave whenever you want and do something else.” Padmé finds herself biting her lip. Should she really go? What’s the worst that could happen? Her parents wake up, find out she’s not home, and at a party that probably has minors drinking alcohol with a boy they barely like?

No, wait, that sounds kind of bad.

“I’ll buy you a bag of gummy bears,” is what Anakin says and Padmé had never been out the door faster.

They meet on the sidewalk outside of Padmé’s house because she refused to break the screen on her window and go down a ladder. Anakin reluctantly agreed after arguing that it would be cool and like they’re in a spy movie. (“To jump out the window of my room that sits on the second floor?” “Yes! Think about it! Diving headfirst out the window, shattering everything and grabbing a hold of a droid and flying around the city.” “Nice imagination, Anakin. But I’m going out the front door.”) 

“What are you wearing?” Is the first thing Anakin says to her. Padmé frowns. She is wearing her flare jeans that have little flowers embroidered on them, a green tank top, denim jacket, and a green beanie. “It’s cold.” Anakin stifles a laugh. “Oh, yeah, laugh all you want, Mister black cargo shorts and a short-sleeved t-shirt. You’re the weird one here.” Anakin rolls his eyes, “You look like you hopped straight out of an early 2000s movie where you’re a nerd.” Padmé scoffs. “I am a nerd.” 

Anakin shrugs, “I guess depends on your definition of a nerd. I think you’re cool.” Padmé is stumped. She stops walking for a second before it registers in her mind and she catches up with Anakin again. She doesn’t get a chance to press further because they arrive at the house. (Already?) The house looks normal on the outside. It doesn’t look like it's housing a party full of minors getting drunk or making out or dancing to absurdly loud music. The lights are on, but aside from that, it doesn’t look like anything out of the ordinary. 

And then Padmé steps inside and it doesn’t look like anything she’s ever seen, really. It’s full of people she doesn’t know personally and the music is louder than she would like. The people all look at least a little bit tipsy and Padmé is already annoyed. Not that she shames people who drink, she’s just annoyed she has to be there. With Anakin.

Anakin, who is immediately recognized and Padmé could not feel more out of place. Anakin puts a hand on Padmé's lower back and guides her to the kitchen where Ahsoka and Obi-Wan are. Obi-Wan Kenobi is probably Anakin’s closest friend and is always next to him when he’s in trouble. As in literally. When Anakin got caught spray-painting a wall downtown, Obi-Wan was right next to him. Thankfully, Obi-Wan got off clean because he didn’t actually _do_ anything. Or encourage. And Anakin testified to that.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is leaning against the counter with a red solo cup in hand, looking like he’d rather be anywhere else. “Hey, Anakin.” He speaks but his words are slurred. Not necessarily a drunk type but a tired type. Like it’s too much energy to properly enunciate the words. “Oh, hey Padmé.” He says as a follow-up like he just noticed her. Which, he probably did. Padmé flashes a small smile, staying close to Anakin, his hand still on the small of her back. 

Ahsoka Tano sits next to Obi-Wan but he isn’t drinking anything. They’re a year younger than Anakin and Padmé but he carries himself like he’s older than all of them combined. He’s fierce and outspoken and won’t hesitate to hurt you if you even look at their friends the wrong way. Ahsoka Tano is also the sweetest person she’s ever met. Not that Padmé has really spoken to Ahsoka outside of brief meetings when they come to bother Anakin during tutoring. 

“Hi, Padmé!” Ahsoka says cheerily in a way that makes Padmé feel all warm inside. Like someone actually wants her there at this godforsaken party. “Hi Ahsoka.” She replies. Anakin has left her side by now, walking over to Obi-Wan and stealing his cup and drinking from it. “Anakin that is so unsanitary,” Obi-Wan complained, throwing his arms up as Anakin just smirks. “Yeah, but I didn’t put my lips where you did, no homo, bro.” Obi-Wan narrowed his eyes, “We’re both bi and you don’t even know where my lips were, you just arrived.” He scolded, grabbing back the cup from Anakin’s grasp.

Anakin has half a heart to look offended and Padmé can’t believe what she’s watching. Ahsoka rolls their eyes, letting out an exasperated sigh. “Don’t mind them, they do this all the time.” And with that, Ahsoka’s gone. Padmé doesn’t know where he’s going but she’s a little too shy to ask. Anakin and Obi-Wan are still going at it, arguing while Obi-Wan seems genuinely upset and Anakin just wants to make him more upset. Padmé has never felt so lonely.

Anakin and Obi-Wan don’t look like they’re stopping anytime soon, Obi-Wan’s voice getting higher and Padmé decided that Ahsoka probably had the right idea. Besides, the whole reason to come to these things is to socialize, right? To go out of your box? To expand your circle? 

And with that, Padmé is out of the kitchen, wandering into the large living room full of people she didn’t know. At least, personally. She still went to school with a majority of the people in this room and she could probably name a decent amount of them. More than she would like to admit.

The house is a decently sized suburban house, the walls are white and full of cheesy white people quotes and family portraits. She doesn’t recognize the people on the walls but it doesn’t necessarily phase her, there are plenty of kids at her school that she doesn’t know. Either an upperclassman or a lowerclassman that’s trying way too hard to impress. 

The room is full of people dancing to music that Padmé never listens to, the lights are a dim setting, presumably to set the mood. And Padmé hates it. 

The room is seemingly peaceful, save for the kids grinding on each other in a way that is sort of gross. But other than that it seems like it’s just kids having fun. Until it’s not.

Until someone throws a punch at someone else and the room stops. Everyone starts to notice absolutely immediately and the music has stopped, too. The fight is breaking out and people are clueless. Padmé is clueless. She doesn’t know who the kids fighting are and she doesn’t like extreme displays of violence. And if the blood dripping down Kid 1’s face is an indication of violence, Padmé doesn’t know what is.

And just like that, Padmé is hurrying back to the kitchen, noticing Obi-Wan and Anakin still arguing, not even caring about the fight in the room over. “Hey, Anakin?” Padmé says, her voice is shaky and she looks upset. Maybe because she is. Her hands are playing with the sleeves of her jacket, fiddling because she needs a distraction. Anakin’s head turns towards Padmé at a speed that would be concerning if Padmé was paying attention at all. “You good?” He says but his eyes are worried. He looks concerned, like he cares. Padmé has never seen this look from Anakin. Especially directed at her.

She shakes her head. “No.” She whispers but Anakin knows what she means. She wants to leave. She can’t stand to be at the party any longer. She’s not crying or exhibiting any emotion that would show her distress other than furrowed eyebrows but somehow Anakin _knows._ Like he could tell from the minute she entered the room. 

And with that, Anakin says goodbye to Obi-Wan and they leave the house at a speed that makes heads spin. 

“Okay, where’s the closest 7/11?” Anakin asks once they’re a safe distance away from the house. “7/11?” Padmé questions. “Yeah? We have to get your gummy bears.” He grins at her and her insides feel all weird inside like her heart is racing. But not from the fight she just witnessed. “Oh. I didn’t know you meant tonight.” But Padmé instinctively knows where the 7/11 is so she guides Anakin as he did with her at the party. But her hands are in her jacket pockets.

“So, are you feeling better now?” Padmé shrugs. “Yeah, I guess.” Anakin nods slowly, “So. . . what happened?” He questions. “Some fight in the living room. Pretty gross. Blood was being bled and. . . I don’t know. . . I’m not a fan of violence. Especially right in front of my face, I guess.” Anakin nods. “Yeah, I get that. What were they fighting about?” Padmé shrugs. “I don’t know, they’re both privileged white boys. Probably over like a girl or something. Whatever gets white boys riled up.” Anakin laughs and Padmé swears it’s the prettiest thing she’s ever heard.

His laugh is angelic and kind of like a song. It’s deep and sweet and she’s never heard it before. Not this laugh. He laughs differently in class. Obnoxiously. As to prove a point. But this one is different. Sounds more genuine. And Padmé never wants to stop hearing it.

“Yeah, that’s fair. White boys are so damn weird sometimes.” Anakin smirks, his hand fidgeting with his pocket chain. “What is that?” Padmé asks. Anakin looks confused for a second before looking down and seeing the chain in his hand that’s connected from his belt to his pocket. He shrugs. “I don’t know, I just put it on. Got it from Hot Topic.” He grins. Padmé actually laughs at this.

“You shop at Hot Topic? In 2020?” Anakin shrugs, his grin hasn’t left his face so Padmé knows she hasn’t hurt his feelings. Hopefully. “You shop at GAP, I presume?” Is what he says. Padmé feels genuinely offended at this, her jaw-dropping forming an O. “That’s so rude. You’re so rude, Anakin Skywalker.” And then before she can stop herself, she _hits_ him. Sort of. Just a light smack on his upper arm. 

He’s laughing but then he stops. He lets out an overexaggerated groan and grabs his arm in pain like she just stabbed him. He stops walking and falls to his bare knees on the concrete sidewalk and falls to his side. “Ow! I’m dying! I’m wounded! I think this is my last moment on Earth. . . I can see white. . . God? Is that you?” He’s holding a hand up to the sky, like an angel is going to take him by the hand and whisk him away.

“Is- is that an Angel I see?” He says and then turns his head to the side, making eye contact with Padmé. “No, wait, that’s just you, Padmé.” He says and then he shoots back up, like he wasn’t just on the ground, making the biggest scene. He dusts himself off and adjusts his shirt, grinning at her. 

Padmé isn’t amused. Her arms are crossed and her mouth is in a weird in-between of a smile and a scowl. Like she wants to be mad but she can’t. Because Anakin is the funniest person she’s ever met. He has no dignity and doesn’t seem to care about what other people think of him. 

“Are you done?” She says, her voice sounds annoyed but she’s not. The fondness she carries for Anakin dripping through her tone like honey. Anakin nods once, hard and rough, like a soldier getting ready to ship off to war. His arms and legs come together like a pencil and he brings his right arm up to salute Padmé. “Sir, yes, sir!” He screams at a volume he should not be screaming for 12:30am on a Friday night (Saturday morning?). 

“Anakin, stop! You’re going to get in trouble.” She laughs, uncrossing her arms to grab Anakin’s hand and take it away from his saluting position that he is still, unfortunately, in. Anakin grins at her, goofily, like a child, and lets her grab his hand. “By who? Who’s gonna get me?” He asks, his eyebrow-raising at her. She shrugs, “Do you really wanna find out?” Her eyebrow-raising to mock him.

He shrugs, “I guess not. . . “ And with that, they’re walking again. The rest of the walk is fairly silent but it’s only 3 minutes left in the walk. And soon enough they arrive at the bright and kind of dirty building of their local 7/11. It looks like any other 7/11 does, the lights flickering, the parking lot virtually empty and the exterior walls of the building itself are a brown that Padmé doesn’t think has been there it’s entire life. But it’s still a 7/11 and Padmé _really_ wants her gummy bears. 

She looks over at Anakin and he’s already at the front door, opening it for her. She walks in, raising her eyebrow at Anakin. “What? Don’t think a woman could open the door for herself?” She teases. Anakin laughs but shakes his head, “Just wanted to test that my arm worked after you very rudely assaulted me earlier.” Padmé rolls her eyes, “Shut up. I barely touched you.” Anakin shrugs, “Maybe you’re not aware of the power you possess, then.” Padmé just rolls her eyes again and walks off to the candy aisle where she knows the gummy bears are being kept.

Anakin walks off somewhere else, Padmé isn’t really sure where. Maybe to get cigarettes, he does have a tendency to smoke. But she doesn’t really care, it’s none of her business. But gummy bears _are_. So, she grabs three bags priced at $3.49 each. She brought $20 with her, for this specific moment. In her arm she has one of gummy bears, worms and then rings. She likes to mix them in a big bowl sometimes and pick one at random. Like the lottery except she’s never losing. 

After she has her collection, she sees Anakin at the counter, his stuff already on the counter. He has a cherry Slurpee and a bag of Doritos on the counter. Padmé seems genuinely surprised, like she actually thought he would buy cigarettes. But she masks her surprise as she approaches the counter, her bags in hand. Anakin notices them and lets out a noise of laughter. 

“Damn, I knew you liked gummy bears but. . . wow.” Padmé rolls her eyes for the fifteenth time that hour. “Mind your business. You have a family-sized bag of cool ranch Doritos. You are hardly in a place to judge.” Anakin raises his eyebrow at this, “Who said I was judging?” But Padmé ignores this and just places her bags on the counter.

The clerk rings up Anakin’s items first and reaches to scan the gummy bear when Padmé speaks up, “Oh, we’re not-” but she doesn’t get to complete her sentence because Anakin’s already pulling out his wallet and grabbing a $20 out of the brown leather wallet. The clerk hasn’t seemed to notice that Padmé was trying to speak at all because she seems completely unphased. 

The clerk is an old white lady with grey hair and looks like she’s about to pass out any moment now. Her eyes are tired and she never seemed to even acknowledge that Padmé is at the counter. Padmé would be offended if she cared but she doesn’t, really. She’s snapped out of her trance when Anakin grabs his receipt from the old woman and stuffs it messily into his wallet. Padmé nicely smiles at the woman and grabs her bags of gummy treats and heads out the door, following suit with Anakin.

Padmé notices Anakin sitting down on the sidewalk that surrounds the store and Padmé visibly cringes. “That is so dirty, Anakin.” She says. Anakin looks up at her, sipping on a straw that’s in his Slurpee. “Who cares, Padmé? Live a little, damn.” He smirks, playing with the straws with his tongue. “I already snuck out with a boy in the middle of the night to go to a party with alcohol to witness a fight and then eventually leave to go to 7/11. I have lived a lot tonight.” Padmé huffs out. Anakin just raises an eyebrow at her.

Padmé huffs again. And then sits down, the bags of gummies in her arms. 

“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Anakin smiles at her. Padmé looks over and sees Anakin’s face. He’s not smirking or grinning at her, just smiling. A smile she hasn’t really seen before. It’s bright and pearly and he looks happy. She’s blinded. Has Anakin been smiling like that his whole life? Why hasn’t she noticed? It fits his face. He looks so pretty.

“See something you like?” Anakin’s smile morphs into a teasing grin once again, reaching into the bag he grabs a Dorito and puts it into his mouth in the least graceful way possible. Padmé has half a mind to laugh at it. “I don’t know. . .” Is her reply. Because she doesn’t. “Sorry, that’s weird.” She says, her face apologetic. Anakin shakes his head. “Not at all. Zoning out is a rite of passage for every human. I do it once an hour.” He sticks another Dorito into his mouth.

Padmé laughs this time. “Yeah?” She says. Anakin nods, “Especially in class, it’s so hard to pay attention.” Padmé nods, “Is that why you’re always causing a ruckus?” Anakin looks sheepish, rubbing the nape of his neck. “Yeah, usually. I guess.” “I just assumed you craved attention,” Padmé says truthfully before she could stop herself. Anakin shrugs, “I mean. . . I guess. I don’t know. Life’s hard. Learning is so hard sometimes. I can sometimes stare at the boards for hours and nothing will click. Words don’t mean a lot to me.” 

Padmé looks interested at this, “Is there any subject you like?” Anakin nods, eats a Dorito, and then answers. “Math. I know it sounds stupid but math is usually easy for me. That and like workshop. Anytime it can be physical, it helps.” Padmé nods slowly. “I see.” Is all she says. Anakin’s cheeks are as red as his Slurpee now. 

“Though, you probably don’t relate. Miss little Valedictorian and all.” He’s teasing but Padmé feels insecure at this insinuation. She shrugs, “I don’t know. Sometimes there’s just so much going on at school I wish it could stop. Learning’s fun and all but it’s so much. My parents expect so much. I expect so much. I don’t know if there was ever a point in my life where I wasn’t studying to be the top of something. Top of my class, top of my sports clubs. . . There’s just so much I feel like I didn’t do.” Padmé admits. 

Anakin looks shocked, as is Padmé. Because Padmé didn’t expect to go on this ramble in front of Anakin. She doesn’t know where it came from and she’s not sure she’s ever really said any of this out loud. “Yeah, expectations from parents can be a real bitch.” He offers. She looks over and he’s drinking from his Slurpee, his hair is usually an obnoxious color that’s bright and in your face but right now the blue in his hair is fading. His cheeks are still faintly red from being embarrassed earlier and his piercings are cleaner than she expected to see. He looks peaceful like no one can touch him. He’s invincible.

“Do your parents ever put expectations on you?” Padmé finds herself asking. Anakin nods, “All the time. For example, my mom would prefer I don’t fail high school.” He says and it sounds like a joke but Padmé can hear the underlying worry in his voice. “My mom sacrificed a lot for me. She left my birth dad before I was born and worked day and night to support the two of us. And then I came out to her and stuff and I was so worried that she would be upset. Not because she’s like transphobic or anything, but because of the medical bills and other stuff. But when I told her all she did was hug me and tell me we would figure it out together. She worked so hard to get me new clothes and stuff and I remember feeling so bad. . . It’s better now ever since she met Cliegg and he sometimes helps but I think sometimes he still feels uncomfortable about it all. About me.” He says and by the time he’s done his voice is faltering a little, like he could cry if he tried.

Padmé’s heart aches for him and she puts an arm around his shoulders, “Hey, you’re getting better in English, I swear. It’s not for everyone and you’re definitely not the first to be failing English and you most certainly won’t be the last. You and I will work day and night if we have to to get your A+. Your mom will be so proud. But I know she’s already proud of you for being you, regardless.” And Padmé’s never really comforted people about this sort of thing before so she prays to god it’s the right thing to say. 

He looks over at Padmé and smiles, the smile she saw earlier that she finds so pretty. “Thanks.” He whispers and Padmé smiles back at him. “Of course.” And then he’s leaning and closing his eyes. Padmé’s stunned. She didn’t necessarily see this coming but she doesn’t mind. She closes her eyes and waits for it to come.

And then she feels the weight against her own lips. She kisses back and can feel Anakin shuffling around, probably putting down his Slurpee somewhere and moving his hand to cup her cheek. They kiss for a while. Padmé couldn’t tell you how long, all she knows is the taste of cherry on her lips and the slight Dorito dust that lingers on his lips. The cool metal of the lip ring hitting her lips that Padmé assumed would have hurt or made her uncomfortable, didn’t even bother her. Her gummies are somewhere discarded on the ground but she can’t find herself caring. They’re still in their plastic bag, anyways.

After time passes and minutes change, Anakin is the first to let go. Padmé opens her eyes slowly, like opening them too fast will break the moment between them and she’s doing everything in her power to not let that happen. And when they’re open she’s staring at the oceans in Anakin’s crystal clear blue eyes. She’s never noticed how blue they are and how they match his hair color. Or did, considering how faded the blue is now. Anakin blinks a few times and Padmé clears her throat. “Uh. . .” Is all she can say. She’s genuinely speechless. Anakin laughs softly, the laugh she likes. The one that makes her stomach stir and the one that makes her blush. “That was cool.” Is all he says and Padmé finds herself laughing, too. “Yeah. Yeah, it was.”  
  


And she smiles at him. A smile that she doesn’t show often. A smile that’s real and genuine and one that she shows when she feels deeply for something. Or, in this case, someone. Anakin seems to like this because he smiles wider at her. “Want some Slurpee?” He asks, picking it up off the ground where he set it. And when Padmé looks down at it she finally notices that there’s two straws in the cup. How did she not notice before?

“Yeah, sure. Did you really get a straw for me?” Padmé sounds surprised. She is. Anakin’s face morphs into a face of confusion before looking down and then looking up back at her, his face looking sheepish once again. “Yeah. . . That’s why. Not to drink it faster or put them in my mouth and pretend I’m a walrus. . . No... That would be dumb.” He laughs awkwardly, rubbing the nape of his neck.

Padmé bursts out laughing, a real, genuine laugh. Her lungs hurt a little at the burst and her stomach is tightening up. She covers her mouth with the palm of her hand as she laughs and Anakin just smiles like a puppy at her. Like he’s happy with himself that he made her laugh. “Sure, I’ll have some of your Slurpee,” Padmé says, putting her hand out for Anakin to put the drink in. Anakin smiles at her and hands it to her, then reaching to get another Dorito to eat. 

Padmé puts the straw to her lips, drinking from it as Anakin eats his Doritos, his legs are against the edge of the sidewalk, his left arm hung on top of his left leg, his right leg extended. Padmé’s sitting cross-legged, criss-cross applesauce if you would. 

“Hey, look up.” Anakin nudges her left arm, causing Padmé to look up. When she looks up she sees a night sky full of stars, it’s a miracle they can see a few under the harsh fluorescent lights of the 7/11 parking lot. “They’re so pretty.” She exhales. Anakin nods. “Yeah, they are.” 

But Anakin isn’t looking at the sky. When Padmé turns her head, she notices Anakin staring at her with those blue eyes. It’s cheesy and predictable and stupid but Padmé just smiles. 

Anakin Skywalker is more than she thought. Anakin Skywalker is not an easy read. He doesn’t just break the rules, he breaks the ones he sees are unjust. Anakin Skywalker loves learning when he understands it. Anakin Skywalker is kind. Anakin Skywalker is thoughtful. Anakin Skywalker is funny. Anakin Skywalker has a big heart.

Anakin Skywalker is a book with chapters that go on for days. The types of books that you have to read a few times to understand. The books that you could think about for years. The types of books that win awards. The type of books Padmé Amidala Naberrie loves to read. 

Anakin Skywalker is a book that Padmé doesn’t want to put down, even for a second. 


End file.
